Turkey welcomes anti-terrorism coalition

MOSCOW (AP) – The latest news on developments in the Syrian conflict. All times local:
11:40 a.m.
Turkey has welcomed the formation in Saudi Arabia of a 34-nation military coalition to fight terrorism. The kingdom announced the new “Islamic military alliance” just hours earlier, saying it will have a joint operations center based in the Saudi capital, Riyadh.
Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu called it the “best response to those who are trying to associate terror and Islam” and said it was a “step in the right direction.”
Davutoglu said Tuesday that “Turkey is prepared to make every contribution possible to any meeting related to the fight against terrorism, regardless of where it is organized or by whom it is organized.”
11:30 a.m.
Germany’s defense minister has rebuffed a call from the United States for her country to make a greater contribution to the military effort to fight the Islamic State group.
Ursula von der Leyen says Germany is already involved on several military fronts combating extremist groups, including in Mali and Afghanistan.
Asked Tuesday about the U.S. request, von der Leyen told public broadcaster ARD that “I’m going to write back and say, of course, we’re on your side, you know that, in the fight against the Islamic State.”
Germany would keep supporting the Kurdish peshmerga in northern Iraq, which she described as “the most effective ground troops” fighting IS.
Von der Leyen also noted that Germany was sending surveillance jets “to Syria with very modern technology, that’s urgently needed
10:20 a.m.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry has opened talks in Moscow with Russia’s foreign minister to try to narrow broad gaps on ways to end Syria’s civil war and restore stability in eastern Ukraine.
Kerry was meeting his counterpart Sergey Lavrov on Tuesday before seeing Russian President Vladimir Putin in what are expected to be difficult discussions over the ways ahead in each crisis.
Russia and the U.S. are at odds over the mechanics of a political transition aimed at halting the war in Syria as well as the military approach to fighting the Islamic State group. On Ukraine, the two countries are split over the implementation of a February agreement meant to end hostilities between the Kiev government and Russian-backed separatists in the east.